Crypto Has Canadian Banks Running Scared

The following is a true story that occurred a few hours ago.

This morning, I went to TD bank, one of the major banks in Canada. I was interested in opening an account, because I needed to use Interac Online to fund my QuadrigaCX account (the largest Canadian cryptoexchange). Due to my dissatisfaction with our banking system in Canada, I bank through a credit union. Unfortunately, my credit union doesn’t offer Interac Online. So, I was forced to make an exception and try using TD to speed up my QuadrigaCX funding.

The beginning of my appointment was amicable enough. They asked me all the basic questions. They chatted with me about my job in insurance. They talked to me about my level of financial knowledge, which is quite good for someone my age. All-in-all, I probably appeared to be an upstanding citizen.

Then, when they asked about my banking needs, I told them that I needed a chequing account to use Interac Online. This sounded innocuous enough to them, so they printed the paper work and asked me to sign on all the dotted lines.

Bingo. I was in business with TD.

Now they just needed to order me an Interac Online bankcard. The young bank employee helping me excused himself to ask his manager about how to do this. Before leaving he said, “What do you need to use Interac Online for? Is it a secret or do you care to share?” I told the truth, and told him that I would use it to fund my QuadrigaCX account to purchase cryptocurrencies. The young man helping me had a decent grasp of what crypto was all about, so we had a good chat about some of the coins he was familiar with. I thought little of this, and he left to ask his manager about ordering me that Interac Online card.

When he returned to the room, his disposition had darkened. “I’m sorry,” he said. “We can’t open this account for you.”

I already knew why. I had a silent chuckle to myself and just smiled at him. He proceeded to tell me that TD bank is doing whatever they can to prevent people from using their services to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies already have the financial industry running scared. They weren’t going to do anything today that would help undermine their stranglehold on the monetary system, like allowing the likes of me to open a bank account.

I signed the account closure forms. I thanked the young man for his help and shook his hand. Then I walked out of the bank building. That building is crumbling at the foundations, yet few people can see the cracks yet.

TD’s refusal to allow me to do what I want to do with my own money only reinforces the need for decentralized and non-institutionally regulated currencies. The influx of capital into the cryptomarket has caused the banking industry’s ears to perk up. At first they laughed at the idea, and now they fear it.

However, the genie is out of the bottle. In fact, the genie has been out of the bottle since Satoshi Nakamoto published his original paper on Bitcoin in October, 2008. We can’t go back. Maybe it won’t be Bitcoin. Maybe it won’t be Ethereum. Maybe it won’t be any of the top 100 coins. But we can’t forget that the feasibility of cryptocurrencies has been demonstrated, tested, and it has survived all of the full-frontal attacks thus far.

As I left the bank, I thought that I heard a low rumble, as if another new crack had formed in the foundation of currency as we know it today.

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